


Light

by quentinknockout



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 14:27:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3981493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quentinknockout/pseuds/quentinknockout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a tragedy at Castle Black, Stannis calls Jon Snow to his chambers to speak to him plainly. Sort of an AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Light

There had been whispers of it in the walls of Castle Black in the night, and they had only grown louder and louder.

In the morning, Jon Snow knew them to be true.

The Onion Knight was dying.

There’d been a skirmish – a Wildling caught him off guard. Ser Davos been forced to defend himself with his weak hand and he’d been wounded, mortally. They all saw it, a gaping bloodiness on his lower left side. He collapsed in the snow outside the gates, scarlet staining the white.

‘Would you tell Stannis,’ he’d breathed quietly to one of the men who ran to him, and there was blood on his lips. ‘Would you tell Stannis to come?’

They knew he was delusional, then, and they’d known it was grave, because nobody called the King by his first name.

They carried Ser Davos to the maester but he confirmed what they all saw. Too much blood, there wasn’t much that could be done. They laid him up in one of the rooms, trying to ease his pain.

It was the king’s reaction that had surprised them all. It had been barely a day but in that time he had grown into a shadow, turning greyer with the worsening news of Ser Davos’s health. Jon Snow had not expecting such feeling, he found Stannis Baratheon to be a remarkably distant man. But when the maester had said nothing more could be done for Ser Davos, the King had sent everyone away, including the Red Lady, and sat in with the dying knight himself. No one passed in or out of the room for a whole night.

In the morning, Ser Davos was gone.

The king, they said, had not said a word. The maester reported that when he’d come in, the King had been close by the bedside, his hand resting on the inside of the cold knight’s arm. 

He had left the room silently, shut himself in his chambers alone, called for no one and asked for nothing. The day crept by, darkening. At almost nightfall, the king sent for Jon Snow.

Jon arrived with trepidation, to find the king sitting by the embers of a dying fire. His face was greyer still, his usually blazing eyes oddly empty. He looked as if sleep had not come for a long time.

‘Your Grace,’ Jon said quietly.

‘I presume all is in order, then, with your men.’ The king’s voice was threadbare, hoarse, unused for several hours.

‘It is.’ Jon was taken aback, but pressed forward anyway. ‘Your Grace, the men and I wished to express our condolences. Ser Davos was a good man. He was very well liked by many of us.’

Stannis closed his eyes, moved closer to the fire. He turned away.

‘Thank you.’

There was a long silence. Jon was unsure if he was still required.

Finally, the king spoke.

‘They think me very cold, Lord Commander.’

‘Your Grace?’

‘Cold. Unfeeling. People have often said this of me. Since I was young.’

Jon did not know quite how to reply.

‘Your Grace-‘

‘Ser Davos was never cold. You perhaps noticed. He was very wise. And he was warm. He had a way with people.’

He stared back into the fire.

‘I feel I can trust you, Lord Commander. So I will tell you this now, and only once. Ser Davos Seaworth was my heart.’

His voice was very quiet, but there was a hollow grief to it that Jon could not describe.

‘I try to refrain from discussing these matters. But he was invaluable. Utterly. I do not love many. But Ser Davos, I did love him. He was by my side many years. You will forgive me if I am a little out of sorts.’

Jon Snow could not believe this reticent man suddenly baring all. He did so with great difficulty. Jon waited for more words but none came.

‘Did you tell him?’ he finally asked, quietly.

‘I did.’ Stannis murmured, his eyes not moving from the fire. ‘I did, many times. You may not believe that of me, knowing of me as you do, but I did. And to think they all used to laugh at my brother Renly for such things. No, he knew. And I was lucky enough to be loved by him, in turn. I’m glad he knew, because he made me whole. I will be far lesser without him.’

Jon stood silently for a while, until Stannis spoke again.

‘I thought perhaps you should know your king’s weaknesses, Lord Commander. My apologies. I am bereaved. You may take your leave.’

‘Thank you, Your Grace.’ Jon replied, softly. ‘But love should never be a weakness.’

He swung on his heel and turned to leave. As he turned to go, from the corner of his eye he saw Stannis Baratheon put a hand to his face.


End file.
